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Posts with tag police

Fight Crime by Texting the Police

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jul 8th 2008 at 2:14PM

Fight Crime by Texting the Police
By now, crime stoppers hot lines and posters encouraging you to "say something" are old hat in the law enforcement tool box. Anonymous tips are an important part of the the crime fighting arsenal in many cities and police are looking for ways to update that weapon for the 21st century.

Many police outfits are taking the teen and twenty something's communication method of choice, text messaging, and collecting tips from those with speedy thumbs. Even major cities like Cincinnati and Boston are experimenting with the system and having measurable success. The very first text messaging tip received by the Boston police department resulted in an arrest in a New Hampshire murder case. In the first year of the program, the number of text messaging tips nearly matched the number of tips called in through the the old-school voice-based hotline.

All the text messages are routed through a server that encrypts the originating telephone number so that tracking them to their sender is virtually impossible, which should help calm the fears of those who don't want to be labeled as snitches. [Source: USA Today]
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New Facebook App Tracks Crime

by Tim Stevens, posted Apr 19th 2008 at 9:07AM

Facebook App Tracks Crime in U.K.Custom little applications are popping up in Facebook profiles like no tomorrow -- so quickly, in fact, that people are having to resort to extended profiles just to keep on top of all the things. Most are, honestly, useless, but some have merit, like a new one that lets citizens of Manchester, England keep up on what sort of shady dealings are happening in their city.

The app, provided by the Greater Manchester Police force, inserts crime alerts into your news feed automatically, keeping you up to date with what's going on in the area. Users can also submit links and descriptions of crime to alert others.

This advent of this app, along with others like the newly released traffic cam app, makes us wonder: Is Facebook actually becoming productive? We think most employers would still disagree. [Source: TechCrunch]
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Colorado Police Turn to YouTube to Catch Criminals

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Apr 17th 2008 at 4:12PMBreaking News


Investigators in Weld County, Colorado are turning to YouTube in their latest effort to catch criminals. The sheriff's department is posting video, like the one above of a burglary, for citizens to view in hopes that someone will be able to identify the suspects and help track them down.

The particular pair of criminals in this video were caught by a home surveillance system and are suspected of burglarizing at least three other homes in the area. It's nice to see 'America's Most Wanted' updated for the MySpace generation.

Of course, this is hardly the first time we've seen illegal activity make its way on to YouTube. [Source: Boing Boing]
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New Jersey Bans Texting While Driving

by Will Safer, posted Feb 29th 2008 at 2:12PM

Texting while driving.


The seeds of driving safety are being planted in the Garden State.

Tomorrow marks Day 1 when talking on a cell phone without a hands-free headset or texting while driving becomes a primary offense in the state of New Jersey. This means police can pull over a driver for the phone-related infraction alone, instead of having to wait for another violation to occur -- such as speeding or driving without a seatbelt -- before doling out a ticket for the talking or texting offense.

This marks an increase in the seriousness with which officials in New Jersey are taking this major source of driving distraction, although plenty of other distractions are in play and allowed by law, like shaving, eating or even reading the newspaper, as a spokesman for AAA points out.

By elevating the infraction to a primary offense, New Jersey lawmakers have made it clear that the primary role of a person behind the wheel should be -- yes -- driving. Fines will range from $100 to $250, although oddly enough no motor-vehicle points will be assessed.

The New Jersey division of highway safety is launching an education campaign to coincide with the newly strengthened ordinance, and electronic signs on the state's highways will warn drivers of the new law and the consequences for drivers who run afoul.

According to a local police official from Southern New Jersey, he expects catching drivers will be an easy task, with so many of them using cell phones in a careless way. "Its going to be like shooting fish in a barrel."

Be advised.

From the Burlington County Times.


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Officer Suspended After Encounter with 'Punk Kid' Posted on YouTube

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Feb 15th 2008 at 3:29PM


YouTube is quickly becoming the bane of over-reactive adults everywhere. Web-savvy kids are catching their elders freaking out on video and posting it on video sharing sites like YouTube. The general result: teachers, cops, and other adults are made to look like jerks.

The latest casualty is an officer from Baltimore, Maryland, Salvatore Rivieri. Officer Rivieri had a rather hostile encounter with couple of teens over the summer that started because the teens were skateboarding in a restricted area. The video shows officer Rivieri storming up to the teens, taking one in a head lock and pushing him to the ground twice.

After exclaiming "dude!" when pushed the floor the officer really exploded, "I'm not 'man'. I'm not 'dude'. I am officer Rivieri. Now the sooner you learn that, the longer you'll live in this world."

While the teen obviously does need to learn how to address his elders, he is also 14 years old and doesn't seem to be purposely disrespecting the officer. Rivieri on the other hand is a grown man who some people believe crossed a line. Not only was his verbally abusive outburst uncalled for, but there is simply no excuse for man handling a child like that, especially since (as the officer so eloquently points out) he's not the child's father.

Officer Rivieri has been suspended to administrative work with pay pending an Internal Affairs investigation.

From ValleyWag

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Police Officer Takes Impounded Moped on YouTube Joyride

by Tim Stevens, posted Feb 12th 2008 at 9:55AM


Chances are you've done some crazy things at work at some point in your career. And, chances are, you were glad that nobody was there filming you at the time for fear of that career being cut short. A currently unidentified British police officer is surely wishing nobody was there filming when he decided to go for a little joyride on a little moped while working -- a moped that had recently been impounded from a suspected criminal.

Footage of the joyride, including a crash, was posted on YouTube and is now starting to get some attention, with 37,000 views (at press time) and counting. The video shows the officer riding in circles without a helmet or license plates, both illegal actions, as his co-workers cackle in the background. The quality of the vid isn't so great, but it should be enough for the right people to identify this guy and, well, make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen again.

From The Telegraph

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Police Can Search Through Cell Phone Contents

by Alon Avdi, posted Jan 24th 2008 at 4:30PM



Unsettling Thought of the Day: The law allows police to search through cell phone contents of people who have been stopped for arrestable traffic offenses. Gizmodo reports that a recent academic article by South Texas Assistant Professor Adam Gershowitz explains that many traffic violations merit a search for contraband like drugs, and search parameters extend to hand-held devices. The law considers cell phones and iPods to be closed containers that police are permitted to "open," even if they contain your private text messages, photos, call history, browsing history and e-mails.

The thirty page article includes a 2007 case that went to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals – the United States v. Finley – in which police arrested a man following a drug sales sting and looked through the cell phone that was on his person. They found text messages that appeared to be connected to drug dealing, evidence which was used to convict Finley. In the end, the appeals court supported the legality of the search.

Truth be told, this news gives us goosebumps. Not because we plan on going 90 mph in a school safety zone, but because the larger issue of privacy seems to be at stake. It would be easy just write this one off as a proof that The Man is indeed a Fascist out to take away all of our liberties, but we just think it's a case in which the law has to catch up with technology. The writers of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights could not have foreseen this kind of scenario, and it should be the responsibility of the US Congress to take up the issue as we become more and more enmeshed in a gray legal area that hasn't kept up with technological developments. Do you think police are justified in looking through your cell phone during a legal search?

From Gizmodo

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'Phraselator' Helps LAPD Break Language Barrier

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jan 16th 2008 at 3:10PM

Phraselator Helps LAPD Break Language BarrierThe Phraselator. The name sounds like a joke, something out of a cheesy Sci-Fi movie from the 50's. But despite its kitschy sounding name, the Phraselator has found a home amongst military and law enforcement personnel.

The Phraselator is a rugged over-sized PDA with a speaker and a hefty amount of storage for audio. Multi-lingual officers translate and record standard issue police commands, the Miranda rights, and questions in roughly 224 different languages. The device has been found particularly useful in Los Angeles which has a very large immigrant population.

The Phraselator was originally developed with backing from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for use in Afghanistan and Iraq by American soldiers for communicating with locals. The $2,500 device is not a two-way translation system, and is certainly not a perfect communications solution, but having useful phrases pre-translated in a voice searchable device has proven immensely useful. Las Vegas Police are preparing to roll out four of the devices, Florida is using it in correctional facilities, and the Los Angeles Police Department is considering purchasing more.

From Los Angeles Times

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Johnny Law's New Super-PDA

by Tom Conlon, posted Apr 11th 2007 at 7:00AM

Mobilisa m2500 DefenseID System
As USA Today reported yesterday, the Clermont County, OH sheriff's department is mopping up the mean streets of Cincinnati with assistance from the very latest in crime-fighting techno-gadgetry. The newly deployed Mobilisa m2500 DefenseID system is a handheld scanner that reads the magnetic strip or barcode on state IDs, driver's licenses and passports. The system then checks the ID against 140 databases to instantly determine if it belongs to a fugitive, ex-con or documented sex offender. It also plugs the coppers into DEA and Immigration watch lists and can even run checks with photos snapped on a built-in camera when an ID isn't available.

But wait a minute. Isn't this just the kind of thing civil liberties advocates might have a problem with? You better believe it is! Read the full article for details.

From USA Today
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